Do You Really Know Him?

Do You Really Know Him?

What happens when you are confident you know someone, only to have that confidence completely dashed because they do something so out of character you can hardly believe it, or even worse, you find out they were a charlatan all along? It actually happened to me. I found myself divorced and, after more than twenty years, stepping back into the dating pool. I had gone on several dates with a guy and thought I was beginning to know him when I found out he was a complete fraud. I'm embarrassed to say I was completely taken aback by the revelation. I remember saying, “I'm a Lifetime movie!” All that time I thought I knew him, only to find out I really didn't know him at all.

That experience taught me a lot! My guess is that most of the time when something like this happens, it turns out to be a negative experience. You discover a trait, a character flaw, an addiction you never knew they had, or something else that suddenly changes what you thought you knew about that person. What you believed about them doesn't line up with what has now been revealed, and you realize there was a whole part of this person you simply didn't know.

The same thing can happen in a positive way. Have you ever thought you knew someone, maybe even made value judgments about them based on what you thought you knew or something someone else told you about them, only to find out there was so much more to the story? The more time you spent with them and the more vulnerable the relationship became, the more you discovered amazing qualities you hadn't seen before. Maybe you saw their kindness toward the least likely person, their generosity when no one was watching, their strong character or their willingness to stand in the face of adversity or criticism. All of a sudden, you realized there was so much more to them than you knew.

Either way, both revelations happen because we just didn't know the person as deeply as we believed we did. The relationship was more superficial than deep. We knew what our limited experience had shown us or what someone else had told us up to that point, and we formed an opinion based on the information we had. The problem was there was still so much we didn't know.

Relationships never develop overnight. They grow by spending time with someone, listening because you really want to understand them and asking questions because you genuinely want to know more. Vulnerability brings about a depth of knowledge that nothing else can. Learning how someone thinks, how they respond under pressure, what they believe, what is important to them, what hurts them and what brings them joy only comes with time and devotion to the relationship. The deeper the relationship becomes, the more you discover about the person.

Do You Know Jesus, or Do You Know About Him?

This applies to your relationship with Jesus too. If someone asked you, “Do you know Jesus?” how would you answer? If you are reading this blog, my guess is your answer would probably be, “Yes, I know Him.” But I want to ask you the question again, and this time I want you to really think about your answer: Do you REALLY know Him? Maybe your answer is, “Yes, I really know Him,” or maybe, if you search your heart and answer honestly, you would have to say, “I know about Him.”

There is a big difference between the two, and even if your answer is, “I do know Him,” can I challenge you to consider that there is always more of Him to know? Begin to ask yourself, Do I know Him because I have encountered Him, or do I know Him because I have been told about Him? How much of what I believe about Jesus have I personally discovered in His Word, and how much do I believe because someone else told me? The answer is important as you move forward in your relationship with Jesus because we were never meant to build our entire relationship with Him on someone else's encounter.

I think those of us who have been around church and the Bible for a long time have to be especially careful about this. Familiarity can convince us we know something more deeply than we actually do. We know Jesus was born in Bethlehem. We know about Mary and Joseph, the manger, the shepherds and the wise men. We know about His miracles, His disciples, the cross and the resurrection. We have heard sermons about Jesus, sung songs about Jesus and read books about Jesus, and without realizing it, we can become so familiar with what we have been told that we stop expecting to discover something about Him for ourselves.

None of those things are wrong. God has given us pastors, teachers and other believers, and we should learn from them. But what someone else tells us about Jesus should make us want to open the Bible and see it for ourselves. Their revelation should make us hungry for our own encounter with Him, not become a substitute for it. I don't want to know Jesus only through what someone else has discovered about Him. I want to know Him because I have spent time with Him and encountered Him in His Word.

That became one of the driving thoughts behind Jesus: The Promise Revealed — From Birth to Baptism. I didn't want to write a Bible study where I simply told you everything I know about Jesus and then asked you to believe my conclusions. I want to get you into your Bible. I want you to slow down long enough to ask questions, trace the connections and notice things that are easy to read past when you think you already know the story. I want you to have those moments when you see something in Scripture for yourself and think, Jesus, I didn't know that about You.

Knowing Him Changes the Way You Trust Him

Joseph's story in Matthew 1:18–25 is a perfect example. Most of us know the story so well that we already know what happens before we begin reading, but Joseph didn't have that advantage. Mary was pregnant, Joseph knew the child wasn't his, and based on what he knew at that moment, he had already decided how he was going to handle the situation. Then God spoke to him. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because what was happening was much bigger than anything Joseph could understand from what he could see naturally.

Then Joseph woke up, and Matthew tells us that he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him. We can read right past that because we know the rest of the story, but Joseph didn't know what happened next. God didn't show him the next thirty years and then ask him whether he was willing to obey. Joseph still had unanswered questions and still had to live with whatever other people thought about the situation. He had to make a decision based on what God had said, and his decision required faith before he had all the answers.

I think Joseph's response tells us something about the relationship he already had with God. He knew God well enough to trust what He said, even when his circumstances didn't yet make sense. The situation hadn't changed when Joseph woke up. The opinions of the people around him hadn't changed either. What had changed was that Joseph had heard from God, and knowing the One who had spoken affected what Joseph did next.

Sometimes we want trust to work in exactly the opposite way. We want God to explain everything first. We want Him to show us what He is doing, tell us how everything is going to work, answer our questions and give us some assurance about the outcome, and then we will trust Him. But if we already know everything and can see exactly how it is all going to work out, how much trust does that really require?

Think about the people you trust most in your own life. You probably didn't trust them deeply the first day you met them. You learned their character over time. You watched what they did with your vulnerability, whether they kept their word, how they responded when things became difficult and whether what they said matched how they lived. Eventually, you could trust them in situations where you didn't have every piece of information because you had come to know their character. Why would we think developing trust in our relationship with Jesus would require no time or devotion?

The more time we spend with Him, the more we learn His character. The more time we spend in His Word, the more we discover what He loves, how He responds, what He says, what He promises and how faithful He is to His Word. We begin to recognize His voice because we have spent time listening to Him. We aren't simply collecting Bible knowledge. We are getting to know the One we have chosen to trust with our lives, and the more deeply we know Him, the more confidently we can trust Him.

There will be times when you don't understand what God is doing. There will be questions that aren't answered as quickly as you would like and moments when following what He has said doesn't make sense to the people around you. Those aren't the moments when you want to suddenly begin trying to decide whether God can be trusted. You want to have spent enough time knowing His character that you can say, “I don't understand what You're doing, but I know You. I know Your character, I have seen Your faithfulness and I know Your Word. I don't know what happens next, but I know the One who does, and I trust You.”

Go Back to the Word and Discover Him for Yourself

I want you to try something today. Open your Bible to Matthew 1:18–25 and read it slowly. Don't read it as the Christmas story you already know. Pay attention to Joseph and ask questions as you read. What does he know? What doesn't he know? What has he already decided before God speaks? What does God reveal to him, what is God asking him to believe, what could obedience cost him, and what does Joseph actually do after he hears from God?

When you finish, ask yourself, What does Joseph's response reveal about the relationship between knowing God, trusting God and following God before you have all the answers? Then take the question one step further and make it personal: Do I know Jesus well enough to trust Him when I don't understand what He is doing? Don't rush through the question just because you think you know the right answer. Give the Holy Spirit room to show you where your knowledge of Jesus has come from and where He is inviting you to know Him more deeply.

If you discover that some of your relationship with Jesus has been built more on what you've been told than what you have personally discovered, don't stop there. Let that realization make you hungry. Open His Word and begin looking for yourself. Ask questions. Pay attention to what Jesus says, what He does, what He loves, how He responds to people and what Scripture reveals about His character. Give the relationship the time and attention you would give any relationship you genuinely want to deepen.

That is the heart behind Jesus: The Promise Revealed — From Birth to Baptism. We are going back to the Scriptures and looking again. We will trace promises God spoke generations before Bethlehem, look at the historical setting surrounding the Gospel accounts and pay attention to details we may have missed because the stories became so familiar. But history, connections and even increased Bible knowledge aren't the ultimate goal. They are tools that help us see and know the Person Scripture is revealing.

I want to know Jesus beyond what someone else has told me about Him. I want to encounter Him in His Word for myself and know His character so well that when circumstances tell me one thing and He tells me another, I know which voice I trust. I want to continue discovering His faithfulness, His compassion, His authority, His wisdom and His heart. And no matter how many years I walk with Him, I never want to decide that I already know everything there is to know about Him.

There is always more of Him to know. So don't allow familiarity to convince you that you have already seen everything there is to see. Keep opening His Word, keep asking questions, keep listening and keep allowing Him to reveal Himself to you. Don't settle for knowing about Jesus when you have been invited into a relationship where you can truly know Him.

Ready to Know Him Better?

Jesus: The Promise Revealed — From Birth to Baptism is an eight-week journey through Scripture designed to help you slow down, trace the promises, explore the historical setting and discover Jesus for yourself in His Word.

Study it. Savor it. Live it.